In the development of immunoassay systems, many performance requirements need be met. Assays need be sensitive enough to detect analyte at very low levels in the subpicogram to nanogram per milliliter range. Total assay time needs to be 15 minutes or less in order to provide timely results for patient management in point of care situations, or to meet throughput requirements for batch analyzers. In some cases, analyte panels where multiple assays are simultaneously performed with the same sample are advantageous in order to minimize the turnaround time for results and test costs. All-in-one reagent cartridge and an automatic system conducting an immunoassay test on the cartridge is desired for minimal human input error, cost saving, and prompt results.
Since the cartridges are disposable items, it is necessary to replace the cartridge from time to time between the tests. For conventional immunoassay systems, operators of the systems need to manually insert the individual cartridges into the systems. Such a process takes time and is prone to human errors.